Hey City Councilors… It’s Not About You !

The decision by City Council to dismiss the idea of a ranked balloting system for the next municipal election should concern all of us.

Keep in mind that the motion that Council defeated wasn’t to institute a new voting system; it only asked staff to do a report about the cost and implementation of the ranked ballot system.

Having that kind of information would have been helpful for Councilors to make an informed decision, but apparently they didn’t want the facts to get in the way of their preconceived opinions.

Some of them said that ranked balloting would be too confusing for voters.

That’s ludicrous !

Voters would select a candidate of their choice and then, if they so choose, they could indicate their second and third preference.

What’s so complicated about that ?

We’re told that ranked balloting tends to increase voter turnout and encourages more candidates to run for office, and that might be at the heart of the dismissive attitude by Council.

When you consider that City Councilors want to draw their own ward boundary lines ( certainly no conflict of interest there right ?) and now they reject even getting information about a voting system that might be more fair and equitable than the current system, you could conclude that some of those Councilors are more concerned with their own incumbency than improving a crippled voting system.